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E Ink — a reputation synonymous with e-reader screens — simply debuted a brand new writing show know-how referred to as JustWrite. The tech provi...

E Ink — a reputation synonymous with e-reader screens — simply debuted a brand new writing show know-how referred to as JustWrite. The tech provides the corporate’s acquainted monochrome aesthetic — albeit in unfavorable this time, with white on black.

The important thing right here, as with most of E Ink’s know-how, is minimal energy consumption and low value, the latter of which it was capable of accomplish by dumping the TFT (thin-film-transistor LCD). As an alternative, it’s a skinny roll that may very well be used to paper surfaces like convention rooms and faculties, with a purpose to let individuals write on the partitions utilizing a stylus with virtually no latency, as evidenced within the beneath GIF.

“The JustWrite movie options considered one of E Ink’s proprietary digital inks and provides related advantages as E Ink’s different product traces: a paper-like expertise with an excellent distinction and reflective show with out a backlight,” the corporate writes. “The JustWrite movie is an all plastic show, making it extraordinarily sturdy and light-weight, with the power to be affixed and eliminated simply, enabling writing surfaces in a wide range of areas.”

The know-how might go face to face with the likes of Sony and reMarkable on drawing tablets, however E Ink seems to be extra excited about embedding it in non-traditional surfaces. No phrase but on how or when it is going to come to market, although the corporate is exhibiting it off in individual for the primary time this week at an occasion in Tokyo.

Kadho, an organization constructing automated speech recognition know-how to assist youngsters talk with voice-powered gadgets, is formally exiting stealth right this moment at Exadrive Disrupt SF 2018 the place it’s launching its new know-how, Kidsense Edge voice A.I. The corporate claims its know-how can higher decode children’ speech because it was constructed utilizing speech knowledge from 150,000 youngsters’s voices. The COPPA-compliant answer, which is initially concentrating on the voice-enabled gadgets and voice-enabled toys market, is already being utilized by paying clients.

As anybody with an Echo good speaker or Google Dwelling can inform you, right this moment’s gadgets typically wrestle to know youngsters’s voices. That’s as a result of present automated speech recognition know-how has been constructed for adults and was educated on grownup voice knowledge.

Kidsense.ai, in the meantime, was constructed for teenagers utilizing voices of kids from completely different age teams and talking completely different languages. By doing so, it believes it might outperform the massive gamers out there like Google, Samsung, Baidu, Amazon, and Microsoft, in terms of understanding youngsters’s speech, the corporate says.

The corporate behind the Kidsense AI know-how, Kadho, has been round since 2014, and was initially based by PhDs with backgrounds in A.I. and neuroscience, Kaveh Azartash (CEO) and Dhonam Pemba (Chief Scientist). Chief Income Officer, Jock Thompson, is a 3rd co-founder right this moment.

Initially, the corporate’s focus was on constructing conversational-based language studying functions for teenagers.

“However the largest ache level that we encountered…was that the gadgets that we had been utilizing or apps on – both cellphones, tablets, robotics, or good audio system – they’re not constructed to know children,” explains Azartash. He means the speech recognition know-how wasn’t constructed on children’ knowledge. “They’re not designed to speak or perceive children.”

The group realized there was a much bigger downside to resolve. Instructing children new language utilizing conversational strategies couldn’t work till gadgets might truly perceive the children. The corporate shifted to focus as an alternative on speech recognition know-how, utilizing a knowledge set of children voices (which it did with mother and father’ consent, we’re informed), to construct Kidsense.

The preliminary product was a server-based answer referred to as Kidsense cloud AI in late 2017. However extra just lately, it’s been engaged on an embedded model of the identical platform, the place no audio knowledge from children is collected, and no knowledge is distributed to cloud-based servers. This permits the answer to be each COPPA and GDPR-compliant.

This additionally means it might tackle the wants of gadget makers who’ve been beforehand come beneath hearth for his or her lower than safe toys and robotics, like Mattel’s Hi there Barbie, or its canceled A.I. speaker Aristotle. The thought right this moment is that toy makers, good speaker producers, and others catering to the children’ market will have to be compliant with extra stringent privateness legal guidelines and, to take action, the processing must be accomplished on the gadget, not the cloud.

“All of the decoding, all of the processing is one on the gadget,” says Azartash. “So we’re capable of supply higher efficacy and higher accuracy in changing speech to textual content…the know-how doesn’t ship any speech knowledge to the server.”

“We’ve found out the way to put this all onto the gadget in an environment friendly approach utilizing minimal processing energy,” provides Thompson. “And since we’re embedded we are able to cost a flat charge relying on the product anyplace to a subscription mannequin.”

For instance, a toy firm working with skinny margins on a product with a extremely small lifespan may need a flat charge. However one other firm might have a product with an extended lifespan that they cost their very own clients for on subscription. They might need to have the ability to replace their product’s voice tech capabilities over-the-air. That’s additionally doable right here.

The corporate says its know-how is in a number of toys, robotics, and A.I. speaker merchandise around the globe, however a few of its clients are beneath NDA.

It’s additionally testing its know-how with chip makers and big-name children’ manufacturers right here within the U.S.

On stage, the corporate additionally confirmed off its newest improvement – twin language speech recognition know-how. That is the primary know-how that may decode two languages in a single sentence, when spoken by children. That is an space good audio system and their associated voice know-how are solely now getting into, throughout the grownup market that’s. For instance, Google Assistant is making ready to turn out to be multilingual in English, French and German this yr.

At the moment, the corporate has roughly $ 1.2 million in income from clients on annual contracts and its SaaS mannequin. It’s been working in stealth mode, however is now making ready to achieve extra clients.

Up to now, Kadho has raised $ 2.5 million from traders together with Plug and Play Tech Middle, Beam Capital, Skywood Capital, SFK Funding, Sparks Lab, and different angel traders. It’s making ready to boost a further $ three million earlier than shifting to a Sequence A.

On a light Thursday night time on the Los Angeles Discussion board, Nike’s public relations crew and a gaggle of journalists from among the nation’s main life-style, tech, and common curiosity web sites gathered to see the debut of Nike’s most bold SNKRS stash drop.

Launched along with Kendrick Lamar’s High Dawg Leisure, the collaboration between Nike and Lamar marks a sequence of firsts for the world’s largest sports activities and life-style model.

The mixed effort is the primary capsule assortment that Nike has achieved with a musician. It’s additionally the primary time that anybody presently working on the firm can keep in mind the attire firm signing on with a musician for choose tour merchandise, and the debut of the stash drop via the SNKRS app was the biggest the corporate’s tech had tried to deal with.

For concertgoers, rolling as much as the live performance in Supreme sweats, Yeezys, Adidas, Pumas… and, after all, Nikes, the SNKRS stash drop could be a shock. For folk who had downloaded Nike’s SNKRS app, they’d be capable to purchase and reserve a pair of Kendrick Lamar’s restricted version Cortez Kenny IIIs on the live performance.

Not less than on the primary night time, issues didn’t go as deliberate.

Working with dwell occasions like concert events, the place timing is much less regimented than at a typical sporting occasion (that are marked by tip offs and halftimes that adhere to a reasonably regimented schedule), proved an excessive amount of for the preliminary rollout of the corporate’s stash drop.

Choose NikePlus members acquired an preliminary push notification of the Stash drop and a card within the SNKRS feed additionally marketed the particular stash drop, along with a notification that flashed onscreen between the (superb) SchoolboyQ set and SZA’s (equally superb) efficiency.

There will probably be different possibilities to get the timing down, however for the primary live performance in Los Angeles, concertgoers have been prompted to launch the SNKRS app and attempt to snag a pair of the restricted version footwear nicely earlier than the activation really went dwell.

As soon as the footwear did go on sale, the person interface for locating and reserving the footwear didn’t work for everybody there — actually, just one reporter from the group was in a position to reserve a pair of the footwear (since that reporter hadn’t saved fee data onto the SNKRS app, these footwear have been launched).

“I can’t get the app to do what I would like,” stated one concertgoer making an attempt to snag a pair of footwear.

The crew at Nike stated the live performance’s late begin triggered the miscue. Roughly 30 minutes after the sneakers have been purported to onsale, the activation went dwell — one thing journalists have been solely made conscious of when notified by Nike’s public relations crew.

As soon as the sale did go dwell, the footwear offered out inside the first 5 minutes, though it’s unclear what number of have been made obtainable via the stash drop (Nike declined to offer a quantity).

Nike’s repeating the stash drop for reveals in Houston, New York, Boston and Chicago.

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The SNKRS app is just one instance of Nike’s revolutionary strategy to integrating expertise and trend. In April, Nike launched the primary sneaker that’s built-in with its NikeConnect expertise.

Unveiled earlier this yr via a collaboration with the NBA, the NikeConnect app permits customers to entry data on gamers and stats via a label enabled with close to discipline communications chips.

Nike’s Air Power Ones enabled with the NikeConnect tech will open a particular restricted launch sneaker sale alternative referred to as “The Selection”, however Nike has greater hopes for the expertise.

“We’d love to have the ability to award sweat fairness with entry to unique merchandise or a partnership,” stated a spokesperson for the corporate in an interview final yr.

“NikeConnect [is] an effective way for us to get fascinating information about our members and ship unlocks which are related to these members,” the spokesperson stated.

Past the unlocks for unique sneaker presents, Nike is considering methods to incorporate all of its expertise companions in ways in which profit NikeConnect, NikePlus, and SNKRS customers.

“We’re excited to learn the way unlocks are being acquired proper now,” stated the spokesperson. “There’s a fairly complete ecosystem of worth that we’ve been constructing for our members… Members who’re actually energetic with us are getting rewards or achievements [and] that would embrace companions like Apple… that we’ll be bringing to the desk to spherical out your entire holistic sport expertise.”